NAFDAC busts scam syndicate

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has arrested syndicate, including US and Canadian nationals, defrauding importers seeking its certification for their products.

Other nationals involved in the alleged scam are from Philippines, Tunisia, El-Salvador, Mauritania, Denmark, Mexico, Greece, Switzerland, Indonesia and Republic of South Korea, who act as brokers to the syndicate.

Kingsley Ejiofor, NAFDAC’s director of enforcement, briefed the media on the activities of the said syndicate. Ejiofor said the syndicate, operating through a website, European Union Distributors website, con unsuspecting victims with various forged NAFDAC documents and those of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Federal Ministry of Justice and Federal High Court, and payment verification form from a non-existent Barclays Bank.

NAFDAC said it got to know about the syndicate through an inquiry from an Indian firm, Bharti Phosphates; a German pet food supplement company, and one Akeem from Tunisia.
The inquirers had asked, if they should pay money to a company in Nigeria, called Samjoe Ventures for the registration and shipment of 5,000 metric tonnes of calcium carbonate.

NAFDAC said investigation revealed one Eze Okoronkwo from Abia state, as the perpetrator of the crime.

“The syndicate had collected the sum of $13,640, while there were plans to collect a further sum of $57,720.”